Northshore Magazine

October 2014

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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190 When a North Shore couple approached San Francisco–based designer Lian Eoyang to create a guest cottage on their coastal property—overlooking Boston Harbor—Eoyang took cues from the sur- rounding landscape and existing histori- cal buildings to inform her design. "The property is full of rich history," notes Eoyang. "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's summer home burned down on the prop- erty. Today its stone foundation looks like an ancient ruin." Along with creating a guesthouse that would play off of these historic elements, she also wanted to design the house to leverage the views. An accomplished young designer trained as an architect, Eoyang is well- versed in the New England landscape and its built environment—having spent eight years in the area. (She graduated with a master of architecture degree from Harvard University after attending Wellesley College, where she received an art degree.) Before establishing VIF Stu- dio in San Francisco, she apprenticed with many notable architects. Today, she is an adjunct professor in architecture at Cali- fornia College of Arts in San Francisco and serves as a guest juror at UC Berkeley. Her love of coastal design with modern sensibilities is evident in her work on both coasts. "The guesthouse replaced a dilapidated storage shed that sat on a ledge overlook- ing a cove," Eoyang explains. "I needed to work within the existing footprint, which was small." Although the footprint is a horizontal plane, Eoyang was able to design "vertically." Inspired by old towers erected on Boston Harbor islands dur- ing World War II as lookouts for German U-boats, Eoyang created a design that echoed these historical structures. "We looked at the environment and wanted the house to be 'born' from natural elements," she explains. Eoyang used fields one that was excavated from the property and had the stone hand-cut for the structure's façade. "The stone gives a sense of perma- nence to the dwelling," notes Eoyang. With a nod to the modern generation, Eoyang created a design with clean lines and simple detailing. "The house becomes more about the view and not the structure itself," she notes. The tower's inventive split-level con- figu ation allows for a downstairs bedroom, just off the ground floor main room, and an upstairs art studio that takes full advantage of the water views. WHEN Modern Mix The interior includes an eclectic mix of mid-century Modern and inexpensive finds

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